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US Envoy Wants Sudan Sanctions Lifted

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Cairo, August 01: The Obama administration’s envoy to Sudan has called for removing Khartoum from the US terrorism blacklist and ending sanctions on the Arab country, reported the Washington Post on Friday, July 31.
“There’s no evidence in our intelligence community that supports (Sudan) being on the state sponsors of terrorism,” retired general Scott Gration told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“It’s a political decision.”

The US designates Sudan, along with Cuba, Iran and Syria, as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, and imposes sanctions, including restrictions on aid.

People of India own private airlines: Vijay Mallya

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Mumbai, August 01: Kingfisher Airlines owner Vijay Mallya, whose company will join the private airlines strike on August 18, claims the Government is taxing the business to “death”.

Mallya said the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), which comprises five of the country’s biggest private airlines, found running operations unsustainable because of losses and taxes.

Madonna turns journalist to write about religion

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Jerusalem, July 30: ‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna has turned journalist for Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper.

The 50-year-old pop star’s article on her conversion to the Jewish cult of Kaballah has been displayed prominently on the front page of Yediot Ahronot with a byline.

The article titled ‘How My Life Changed’ was translated into Hebrew by the paper and an excerpt of it was published on Wednesday while the full article will be published on Friday.

In her article, the singer describes her religious awakening more than a decade ago.

Saif apologises for trimmed beard in Love Aaj Kal

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Mumbai, July 30: Actor-producer Saif Ali Khan has managed to resolve the controversy surrounding his maiden production Love Aaj Kal just two days before its release.

The Punjab Cultural and Heritage Board which had earlier objected to the portrayal of the Sikh community in the film accepted an apology from Saif in Mumbai on Wednesday evening.

Serena bides her time waiting for top spot

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California, July 30: Serena Williams has won three of the last four grand slam titles but is still number two in the world, behind Dinara Safina, who has won none of the big four events of tennis.

Such are the intricacies of the WTA Tour rankings system that Safina can be fairly confident about keeping her seat at the top of the ladder at least until the U.S. Open.

Not that Williams is complaining. “I’m happy with my results and winning Wimbledon,” the American said going into this week’s Stanford Classic where she is the top seed.

DubaiSat-1 Heads into Orbit Martin Croucher

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Dubai, July 30: Engineers were celebrating the successful launch of the UAE’s first government satellite last night.

DubaiSat-1 took off on a Dnepr rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last night on schedule at 10.46 UAE time.

It will orbit 680km above Earth, at a speed of 27,000kph. It is expected to beam back its first images in a matter of days. The satellite was stacked in the nose cone of a converted intercontinental ballistic missile with five other satellites from around the world.

Saina down with chicken pox, may miss World Cup

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Hyderabad, July 30: India’s ace badminton player Saina Nehwal has been reportedly afflicted with chicken pox. The temporary health setback is likely to affect her participation in the World Badminton Championships.

Incidentally, Saina seeded sixth in the world had got a bye in the women’s singles first round of the World Badminton Championships to be held in Hyderabad on August 10-16.

Recently, the duo of coach Pullela Gopichand and badminton champion Saina Nehwal had been awarded the prestigious Dronacharya and Arjuna awards, respectively.

Hyderabad Cops solve Mumbai Model murder mystery

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Hyderabad, July 29: Hyderabad Police arrested a 23-year-old junior artiste today for the murder of the Mumbai model and actor Arzoo Ali in a city lodge four days back.

The model, also a call girl had come to the city from Bangalore on July 19. She had resisted the junior artiste and pimp Jangam Rajeshwaraiah alias Raju’s attempt to rape her on July 25 morning at Sindhuri Lodge at Ramagopalpet in Secunderabad.

India has 53,000 HIV positive children: Govt

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New Delhi, July 29: Nearly 53,000 children in the country are HIV positive, with Tamil Nadu topping the list with new 2,650 cases, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The minister said in 2006, about 2,253 cases were reported, while the following year 24,977 were registered. In November 2008, the figure touched 19,116.

“The cumulative total among children now stands at 52,973 in May 2009,” Azad said.

India has 2.5 million HIV/AIDS cases.

Britons question Afghan war as more bodies flown home

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London, July 29: Most Britons believe the increasingly bloody war in Afghanistan is “unwinnable” and want troops pulled out, an opinion poll said Tuesday, as more soldiers’ bodies were flown home.

The dead servicemen were honoured a day after Britain announced the end of a major offensive in southern Afghanistan and outlined a change of strategy following a sharp spike in deaths.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband signalled Monday that Britain would back talking to moderate Taliban representatives in a bid to isolate militant insurgents who have killed 191 British troops since 2001.

RIL-RNRL row: Anil Ambani slams Mukesh, Oil Ministry

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New Delhi, July 29: Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) Chairman Anil Ambani has gone public with the allegation that the Petroleum Ministry is favouring his elder brother Mukesh in the battle for gas from the Krishna Godavari Basin.

At the Annual General Meeting of RNRL, Anil Ambani made scathing attack on Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani.

Iraqi army storms Iranian opposition camp

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Baquba, July 29: The Iraqi army seized control on Tuesday of the main base for Iran’s main armed opposition in exile after months of a tense standoff, military officials said.

The storming of Camp Ashraf, which was disarmed by the United States in 2003 and surrounded by American forces until recently, coincided with a visit to Iraq by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

The offensive, which one police source said left 15 people wounded, came after the People’s Mujahedeen said it was ready to return to Iran if the authorities there would guarantee its members would not be abused.

Swat landowners scared to return home

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Islamabad, July 29: Even as hundreds of thousands of people stream back to the Swat Valley after months of fighting, one important group is conspicuously
absent: the wealthy landowners who fled the Taliban in fear and are the economic pillar of the rural society.

About four dozen landlords were singled out over the past two years by the militants in a strategy intended to foment a class struggle. In some areas, the Taliban rewarded the landless peasants with profits of the crops of the landlords. Some resentful peasants even signed up as the Taliban’s shock troops.

Top House Democrats struggling on health care bill

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Washington, July 29: Top House Democrats sought to minimize the impact of a near-certain missed deadline for health care legislation on Tuesday as the leadership struggled to ease the concerns of rank-and-file critics.

“I’m disappointed of course because I really hoped that we could have gotten a bill out of here by the end of this month,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and chairman of one of the three committees at work on the measure.

Iraqi Displaced Return to Nothing

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Baghdad, July 29: For three long years, Mohammad Zoba impatiently awaited his return to his home in Fallujah city to pick up the shattered pieces of his life and start over.
“We have returned two weeks ago and have found our home totally destroyed, with only few walls standing,” he told IslamOnline.net.

“We were forced to camp inside our home, with open ceilings and no electricity,” he added.

“I found myself displaced inside my own home.”

Zoba could not get back his job to provide for his family.

U.S., China talk money, climate; no breakthroughs

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Washington, July 29: The United States and China broached two touchy topics — currencies and climate change — in talks on Tuesday that appeared to be more about establishing positions than hammering out firm commitments.

In the first round of what will be an annual “Strategic and Economic Dialogue,” the two major economic powers signed a memorandum promising greater cooperation in tackling climate change, energy and the environment, although the document was not publicly released and few specifics emerged.

Britain to withdraw remaining forces from Iraq

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Baghdad, July 28: Britain will withdraw its remaining forces from Iraq to Kuwait by the end of the month because the Iraqi parliament failed to pass a deal allowing them to stay to protect oil platforms and provide training, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Britain already has withdrawn its combat forces according to a previous agreement. The British Ministry of Defense said the new announcement related to between 100 and 150 mostly navy personnel left to train the Iraqi navy. U.S. troops would be standing in for the British while they were out of the country, according to the ministry.

Sensex makes up losses, but still closes lower

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Mumbai, July 27: A key index of the Indian equities markets managed to recoup most of its losses Monday to end trade 11 points lower than its previous close.

The 30-scrip benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, which opened at 15,350.89 points, lost 11.49 points or 0.07 percent to close at 15,367.47 points (provisional).

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), however, closed 0.04 percent higher at 4,570.45 points.

Manmohan will speak on India-Pakistan joint statement: Congress

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New Delhi, July 27: Dispelling speculation about a rift in the ruling Congress over the India-Pakistan statement in Egypt, the party said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will clear the air in parliament Wednesday.

“The Congress is confident (that) when the prime minister speaks in parliament July 29, he will set at rest all the questions, all apprehensions and speculation relating to the Indo-Pak joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt,” Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said here.

Goa beach controlled by international drug cartels: legislator

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Panaji, July 27: A legislator of the ruling Congress party in Goa Monday claimed the state’s renowned Calangute beach has been parcelled out between various international narcotics cartels.

Speaking in the assembly, Calangute legislator Agnelo Fernandes said that drug cartels from Nigeria, Scotland, Israel and Russia had carved out independent pockets of influence in the popular coastal village of Calangute and even he felt threatened travelling there at night.

Former INLD leader joins Congress

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Chandigarh, July 27: Sampat Singh, a former leader of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana, Monday joined the Congress at a ceremony here attended by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Singh, a former finance minister in the Om Parkash Chautala government and a Jat leader, said: “I have joined the Congress just as a party worker and have no big expectations. Whatever duty the party would assign me, I would do it with full discipline and loyalty.

N-submarine still wrapped in secrecy

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Visakhapatnam, July 27: India’s first nuclear submarine remains shrouded in secrecy — despite its public launch.

The cloak of secrecy over the project, the existence of which has been denied by successive governments since its inception in 1984, was lifted Sunday when the defence ministry took journalists for the launch ceremony at this port city. However, no photography or filming of the submarine was allowed.

The official photographs of the event did not show a clear image of the submarine either.

Paswan, LJP workers held during protest march

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Patna, July 27: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan was arrested here Monday along with hundreds of workers from his party during a protest march against the Nitish Kumar-led state government.

Paswan and his supporters were arrested during the ‘jail bharo abhiyan’ (fill the jail campaign) while they were marching from the party headquarters to the governor’s residence Raj Bhavan.

The LJP has launched a statewide campaign to “expose the failure of the state government in stopping atrocities against the Dalit community”.

I haven’t seen kitchen in 6 months: student chef in Australia

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Melbourne, July 27: It’s not just Indians who are facing problems in Australia. An aspiring chef from Nepal, who is enrolled at a cooking school, said even after six months he hadn’t “seen the college kitchen”, a report said Monday.

“I don’t believe that there is a kitchen because I haven’t seen the college kitchen,” Kumar Khatri, who enrolled at the Sydney cooking school Austech, was qouted as saying by ABC online Monday.

He decided to quit and received a letter from professional debt collectors telling him to pay $5,000.